Pastor Jerry Jefferson, right, speaks to Azusa community members at a meeting about gang violence at Foothill Community Church Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019. (Photo by Christopher Yee, San Gabriel Valley Tribune/SCNG)

In the past year, Pastor Adrian Greer has had to hold three grieving mothers as they’ve cried on his shoulder over the deaths of their sons.

A lifelong Azusa resident, Greer operates MYTHIRDPLACE, a nonprofit organization operating out of Foothill Community Church, which aims to provide local teenagers mentorship outside of home and school.

Greer also lives in Atlantis Gardens, the neighborhood near Rockvale and Alosta avenues that recently had seen a marked increase in gang violence.

In the past month, Azusa police have worked with other neighboring law enforcement agencies in an effort to quell the violence, for which Greer thanked them. They’ve done their part, he said.

“But now it’s up to us as a community to address the long-term,” Greer said. “We can come together to say enough is enough and ask ourselves what are we going to do about it.”

Community leaders and residents are in the early stages of developing methods to combat the long-standing problem of gang activity in Azusa.

In addition to the added enforcement efforts, the Azusa Police Department has been working with the Azusa Unified to reach parents of middle and high schoolers with resources to help them and their children tackle the difficult subject matter.

But police can’t arrest this problem out of the community, Azusa police Capt. Mike Bertelsen said.

“The Police Department can say, ‘This is what we think will work,’ but we may not know,” Bertelsen said. “The people who live here, the pastors here, they’re the ones who know what could work and what won’t.”

About 50 community members attended Tuesday at Foothill Community Church to brainstorm solutions. In attendance were City Council members, school district representatives, local clergy members and concerned residents.

Mayor Joe Rocha said he intends to revive something once called the “Mayor’s Youth Council” as the city’s youth advisory board, a group of local teens who will spend time in all parts of the city listening to what’s on their peers’ minds and figure out ways to help them.

City Councilman Uriel Macias, who also lives in Atlantis Gardens, said he wants to see if the city can revive a residential development project it had once proposed in that neighborhood with redevelopment money.

The city had bought several properties in the area and razed them in preparation of building low-income and veteran housing, but the project died when the state pulled the plug on redevelopment agencies, Macias said.

“We need a multipronged approach with law enforcement from the Police Department, education from our school district, a change in culture from the community and economic investment in the area,” Macias said.

Those properties belong to the county now, Macias said, and he hopes the city can partner with the county to get affordable housing built there and eliminate the blight.

A majority of the meeting’s attendees agreed local teens need more mentorship, especially those who may not have strong parental guidance at home. The name of MYTHIRDPLACE refers to a term coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg who said people have three distinct places that shape their lives — home, school or work and a third place of their choosing, Greer said.

All too often, Greer said, gangs represent that third place for teens because they offer direction, guidance, acceptance, affirmation, rites of passage and, most of all, a sense of belonging — often to something bigger than themselves. As a result, there are times gangs do a better job of mentoring youths than the broader community, Greer said.

Greer said he hopes people can find time to spend with a local teen or two, getting to know them and the challenges they face. The solution, he added, will not be found via donations to a crowdfunding campaign.

“My heart hurts because there are young people who are not alive anymore, and I feel like there’s something burning in my belly,” Greer said. “If your heart hurts and belly burns, reach out to me.

Christopher Yee is a reporter for the Pasadena Star-News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune covering cities in the west and central parts of the San Gabriel Valley. He grew up in Monterey Park and studied journalism at East Los Angeles College and UC Berkeley. You may find him at Dodger Stadium or at the Staples Center for L.A. Kings games.

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